OBITUARY:Carl Giles | The Independent OBITUARY:Carl Giles Monday 28 August 1995 23:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Carl Giles was a phenomenon. At a time when most cartoonists were striving for spontaneity, many of them experi- menting with versions of the squiggle and doodle, he carried on composing his cartoons like pictures, striving for accuracy in the settings, the facial expressions, the body language, the tonality and the textures. As a household name whose annuals regularly topped the best-seller lists at Christmas Giles would have been expected to accept if not to court publicity, but he resolutely refused to be interviewed and on the very rare occasions he capitulated gave nothing away, not because he was shy but because he did not feel like it. As a commentator on the contemporary scene, he should have found London attractive but he had to be dragged there and got what he wanted from newspapers, his Suffolk farm, local pubs and the view from his Ipswich studio. And, once he could get away with it, he obliged the Express to come and collect his drawings by taxi or, in snowy weather, by helicopter.

He insisted on cartooning no more than three days a week so as to leave time for the vigorous pursuit of his other interests. One editor might ad- monish him as "brilliant, but unpunctual, unreliable and unbusinesslike" but it did not matter - everyone knew the Express could not afford to lose him - he could follow Rabelais' advice "Fay ce que voudras". All this because he head found a formula that made him the first social cartoonist to have a truly national appeal. Until Giles was established, humour knew its place. For the educated readers of Punch there was urbane social comedy; for the ignorant readers of Tit-Bits there was knockabout fun. For a cartoonists to bridge the gap seemed an almost impossible task. Phil May - he who said "draw firm and be jolly" - nearly did it with his cockney types but too much condescension showed through. Bruce Bairnsfather, the creator of "Old Bill", did do it - but that was during the First World War when national unity was a condition of survival. Heath Robinson did do it - by escaping into fantasy.

Giles was the first cartoonist of real life to be appreciated as much in the public bar as he was at the Palace. How did it happen? First a share of the credit must go to Express Newspapers. It is doubtful if any proprietor has valued cartoonists more highly than did the first Lord Beaverbrook. He wanted the best, irrespective of their politics, and in the shape of Low, Vicky, Strube, Giles and Osbert Lancaster he got them. Cartoonists liked working for him not just because he paid well and allowed them freedom, within limits, to upset his readers, but because he and his editors treated them as artists. In Giles's case this meant agreement upon an unpunishing schedule (two cartoons a week for the Daily Express, one for the Sunday Express); allocation of generous space on the page and putting up with a good deal of artistic temperament. Most unusual in those days (the mid-1940s) was their consent to Giles's staying put in the Suffolk country so that his cartoons were never discussed or seen as rough sketches but despatched on a take-it- or-leave-it basis. The treatment worked.

Giles stayed with the paper for more than 50 years - a record only equalled by Tenniel and Shepard in Punch. When John Gordon, editor of the Sunday Express, lured the 27-year-old Giles away from Reynolds News in 1943, he was taking on a self-taught cartoonist of promise but no marked individuality. Born over a tobacconist shop at the Angel, Islington, north London, educated up to the age of 14 at the local Barnsbury Park School, Giles worked first as an office boy for a Wardour Street film company from which he graduated to becoming an animator on cartoons. He joined Reynolds News, a left-wing Sunday newspaper, in 1937, doing single-panel and strip cartoons and turned to good account his animating experience in composition and capturing movement. Rejected for war service because of injuries incurred in a motor-cycle accident, he treated war in his early cartoons rather as Bairnsfather had done: battle as a bloody nuisance; Tommy as a wag.

Later, as the Express's official war cartoonist, who had entered the concentration camp at Belsen with the liberating troops, he sometimes stopped joking to show the Nazi leaders in all their bestiality. But generally he was genial and he was no longer in search of a style. In April 1944 he drew his first classic. A group of cheerful US airmen are standing beside their crashed bomber in the street of a German city. One of them has spotted a passing Nazi car. The caption is "Taxi!" By the time that the first collection of Giles cartoons was published in 1946, Giles was famous. John Gordon, in the introduction, hailed him as "a spreader of happiness", "a really great artist", "a genius" with "the common touch". Next year Arthur Christiansen praised his realism. But the following year Nathaniel Gubbins moved off on another tack seeing Giles as a savage satirist, "a great hater of stupid things and people". Was there more then to Giles than his admirers had assumed?

There had been the anti-Nazi cartoons; there had been frequent appearances by a skeletal schoolmaster and tormentor of Giles's youth called "Chalkie" (actually he got as much as he gave); there were to be tilts at tax inspectors, teddy boys, traffic wardens, shop stewards and Members of Parliament. But hatred? The Giles Family, who started to emerge in 1947, helped to clear things up. It consisted of Grandma, the indomitable anarchist; work- shy Father who thinks he's head of the household and sensible Mother who is; their son George, married to Vera, thin, sad and constantly under the weather; an infant son, Ernie, diabolic and prematurely bald, the Twins and others. All the members of the cast were drawn with the sort of affection for their faults that characterised a novelist like H.E. Bates rather than a satirist like Swift. Satire implies an urge to reform which seemed totally foreign to Giles's intentions. Of course Englishmen are incurably lazy and boozy and philistine and prone to violence. But what the Hell, they're funny. His attitude was summed up in a cartoon which showed Ernie disconsolate under a tree.

His father, who had been happily fishing, turns round and says, "All right. You despair of the human race, I despair of the human race, we all despair of the human race. Now hold your tongue." Vicky once described Giles as "a present day Hogarth". But Hogarth was a satirist, more than a moralist. Giles's line of descent is traced more convincingly from Rowlandson whose morality, in so far as it existed, comes a poor second to his graphic talent for reporting the world around him. Both men were true reporters so that sentimentality towards man or beast was excluded from the fluent curving line with which they often captured beauty. Kinder than Rowlandson, and a good deal cleaner, Giles, in those senses, owed more to Baxter and Thomas, the creators of a shabby purple-nosed reprobate called Ally Sloper who with his family and friends was loved by the Victorians in the same way that the Giles family was loved by us. In our own century Giles professed admiration for Bairnsfather, "Pont",Posy Simmonds and "Trog", none of whom could be described as Hogarthian in outlook.

The Hogarth analogy better suits some of the many cartoonists whose style showed a strong Giles influence, notably "Jak" in the Evening Standard. In fact a description of Giles that was nearer the mark came from Colin MacInnes in an article in the New Left Review in March 1950. While rhapsodising about Giles's powers as an artist "There is no one (and may I repeat no one - no film director, no photographer, no painter) who has caught as precisely and poetically as he has, and with such strength of wit, fantasy and sardonic-tender observation the true aspect of the contemporary urban scene", he attacked his social attitude accusing him of being "well satisfied with society as it is". MacInnes deplored his "frantic adulation of the powerful", his sycophancy towards the royal family, his "basic respectability". However he could not have looked closely at "Grandma". It seemed as if one of Giles's greatest joys was to set up figures of authority so that Grandma could knock them down. Black-coated, black-hatted, black-hearted and squat, she wasn't choosy in her malevolence.

She and Ernie attend a meeting to debate capital punishment. Ernie pipes up, "Grandma says hang everybody". Another of her rare occasions for pleasure is at an RAF recruitment centre when the sergeant says to her, "I can only suggest that if we've called you up as a rear-gunner there has been a ghastly mistake". He underestimated her; she was heroic, and as a hero she was much needed. The Britannia of Tenniel and Partridge hardly suited a nation whose potential to cut ice in the world was sadly diminished - but Grandma as Britannia was just right. She might be old and steeped in sin but she never knew when the game was up. Brandishing her parrot-head umbrella she'd have whacked our lads inland on the beaches of Dunkirk and prodded them upwards on to the summit of Everest. In one of his letters Giles Junior said that he didn't know if Grandma had burnt her bra but that if she had it would have "gone up like Vesuvius". Any confrontation with authority was likely to produce a similar eruption. There are many reasons to account for Giles's popularity and the conviction that it will last.

His scenes set in pubs, schools, hospitals, village- halls, churches, farmyards, stables, parade-grounds, harbours, factories and above all in council-house front rooms and back gardens give an authentic picture of British life and attitudes of the second half of the 20th century. Much of the attraction of these scenes comes from an enthusiasm for detail which reflected the interests of Giles's richly varied life - as a farmer, racing-driver, horseman, sailor, DIY enthusiast and pub-crawler. His humour, based on a marvellous eye for incongruity, laced (especially in the captions) with sarcasm and occasionally vaulting into the absurd, was rooted in affection for the comedie humaine and to his credit he had no truck with jokes based on smut or racism. Despite or perhaps because of the fact he had no children he will be best remembered as a family man - the creator of the Giles Family, as endearing a bunch of layabouts and mischief-makers (except Mum) as one could ever hope to find.

Above all else he will be remembered as the creator of Grandma who will surely enter the Pantheon of immortal comic characters alongside Falstaff, Uncle Toby, Micawber and Mr Pooter, or in pictorial terms Ally Sloper, Old Bill, Colonel Blimp and Maudie Littlehampton. Simon Heneage The works of Giles are the least collected of all the world's collectable cartoons, writes Denis Gifford. For most of Giles's 50-year career on the Daily Express, the originals of his cartoons have been rarer than hen's teeth, largely thanks to Giles himself, who guarded the dissemination of his art work. Now and then he presented one, but never would he personally allow one to be sold for money at auction; although one would occasionally slip through. Giles possessed a vast quantity of his work. A one-man exhibition of his cartoons, held at the National Museum of Cartoon Art, in London, in autumn 1993, which he attended in one of his last public appearances, was so bedecked with his drawings, black-and-white and fully coloured, that no admirer could absorb the sight in one go.

For most people, copies of Giles Annuals are sufficient, but even these have rocketed in price since they were first given a value by the Book Collector in January 1985. At that time, the first annual, published in 1946, was priced at pounds 30. Five years later, it would have cost you pounds 100, and last week you would have been lucky to buy one for pounds 200. Now that Giles has left us, the price could well increase further. Cheaper, then, to buy the facsimile, recently republished by the Express. Of the almost 50 annuals that have followed, prices run from around pounds 100 for No 2 to 50p for last year's souvenir compilation. Although they are not pure Giles books, the wartime series of humorous paperbacks edited by the Rev S. Evelyn Thomas already cost rather more than the 1s 6d (71/2p) they sold for at the time. This was the famous Laughs series, and Giles provided his first full-colour art work for their covers.

They began with Humours of ARP (1941) and continued with Laughs With The Home Guard, working their way through each branch of the forces, land, sea, air and land girls. Their value was pounds 10 per piece a few years ago, but has now reached a minimum of pounds 35, with some dealers asking pounds 50. But as to a Giles original, and in colour, bids could begin at pounds 3,000 - but where will they end? Carl Ronald Giles, cartoonist: born London 29 September 1916; cartoonist, Reynolds News 1937-43; cartoonist, Daily Express and Sunday Express 1943- 95; OBE 1959; married 1942 Joan Clarke (died 1994); died Ipswich 27 August 1995. More about: BBC - Giles's cartoon grandma statue returns to Ipswich Giles's cartoon grandma statue returns to Ipswich By Andrew Woodger "I've never worked out whether Grandma is grinning or grimacing" One of Ipswich's most famous ladies has a new plinth to rest on.

The Grandma statue, based on the character in Carl Giles's cartoons from the Daily Express, is now atop a granite slab in the town centre. It is part of £650,000 of refurbishments in the Giles Circus area outside the Corn Exchange. The statue is positioned so that Grandma is looking up at the office window where Giles used to work - above what is now a coffee shop. Ronald 'Carl' Giles started work for Express Group Newspapers during the war and continued to do so until 1992. "The most famous of all the Giles characters was Grandma and she was a sort of Machiavellian figure - gambling, drinking, trying to get the most money she could out of the grandchildren," said John Field, a Giles enthusiast from Ipswich. John Field has compiled several books of Giles's cartoons The Giles annuals were compilations of each year's newspaper cartoons, and John Field continues to compile annuals for the Christmas market. He's got a personal collection of all the annuals from 1945 and estimates pristine copies of the oldest ones are worth up to £1000. Although not born in Ipswich, Giles worked there all his adult life.

"He had to think up a basis on which to put his cartoons and he dreamt up the 'Giles Family', which I believe to be a family based in Ipswich with grandchildren, dogs and the rest of it. "Grandma was always greatly loved. There was a kind side to her, but she was a bit of an anomaly - there was a dark side to her character. "She was a great royalist, but at the same time she went to Heathrow when Kruschchev [USSR leader 1955-64] arrived to visit Britain. "Giles's politics were left rather than right. When Lord Beaverbrook persuaded him to join the Express Group during the war, Giles made it very clear that his politics would not change. "Grandma is based on a variety of people, but in terms of her actual face, it's very much based on Giles himself. I've got a cartoon he did privately that indicates that very much being the case." Giles is believed to have been nicknamed 'Carl' after Boris Karloff Statue crosses the road The statue was originally unveiled in 1993 by actor Warren Mitchell.

In February 2010, it was removed as £650,000 of work began re-landscaping the roads and pavements. About a third of the cost has been met by Ipswich Borough Council with the rest coming from the Haven Gateway Partnership. "The new-look Giles Circus will transform the whole town centre and give a much more people-friendly atmosphere," said Councillor Tanya de Hoedt. "I would like to thank shoppers, businesses and visitors for their patience during this major engineering project but hope they will see the benefits when 'Granny' is again in pride of place." The positioning of the statue is deliberate. "It's very important that Grandma is looking up at the window of Giles's studio on the second floor," said John Field. "That wasn't his only studio in Ipswich, but that was the one he was at for the longest length of time. "I've never worked out whether Grandma is grinning at that window or grimacing. "As an Ipswich boy, it was always exciting to see a building of Ipswich within the cartoon.

"One could eventually produce a book which includes 120-plus cartoons featuring Ipswich and Suffolk locations." The Carl Giles Trust Collection is held by the University of Kent on behalf of Express Group Newspapers. It contains around 6,500 original artworks for cartoons which you can look at online. Bookmark with: Gallery: More artwork by Ipswich cartoonist Carl Giles set to be auctioned - News - Ipswich Star Gallery: More artwork by Ipswich cartoonist Carl Giles set to be auctioned 15:57 30 December 2013 Colin Adwent colin.adwent@archant.co.uk Cartoonist Carl Giles Personal memorabilia showcasing the unique wit of iconic Suffolk artist Carl Giles is to go on sale early in the New Year. Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. Included are original cartoons from his days working for Reynold’s News in the 1930s and 40s, as well as letters and postcards to his wife Joan.

For the past two years, Martlesham auctioneers Lockdales have sold Giles’ historic pieces to admirers all over the world, as the demand for the cartoonist’s work continues to grow. In October, an auction of 33 lots of Giles’ cartoons and other memorabilia were sold for £15,250. However, the latest batch is extra special as it has been put up for sale by family and friends. Oliver Miller, Lockdales director of fine art and antiques, said: “We’ve had some remarkable Giles sales in the past, and this may well top the lot. “Giles mixed political humour with all sorts of other qualities, and the messages to his wife shows another side of the man.” The cartoonist died in 1995, aged 78. He lived in Tuddenham, near Ipswich, and a statue in his honour stands in the town centre near his former office at Giles Circus at the junction of Princes Street and Queen Street. Another lot in the auction is a British Racing Drivers’ Club car mascot with a Giles signature etched into it.

Mr Miller added: “The letters and telegrams sent to his wife were addressed to ‘Dear Mummy,’ and there were little sketches on some of them. “Personal items from the great cartoonist have been tucked away for a long time. “Now they are out in the public domain, and we’ve already had a great deal of interest ahead of the February 13 sale.” The Islington-born Giles began his national newspaper art career with the Young Ernie cartoon strip that appeared in Reynold’s News from 1937. He went on to work for the Daily and Sunday Express, where his work appeared each morning. Giles was voted Britain’s favourite cartoonist of the last century. Close Famous Suffolk People Suffolk Barns Famous Suffolk People Suffolk has a rich history, unique architecture, stunning beaches and breath-taking countryside as well as first class local food & drink, so it's no wonder that we attract a host of celebrities & famous residents, both past and present. Famous Suffolk People Sir Peter Hall CBE was born in Bury St Edmunds on November 22, 1930 and during his life founded the Royal Shakespeare Company and directed the National Theatre, Glyndebourne and then his own The Peter Hall Company.

Peter Hall made his mark at the age of 24 when, in 1955, he produced a new play by a relatively unknown writer - Samuel Beckett. The play was Waiting for Godot and the rest, as they say, is history. In 1974 Peter made a film based loosely upon the book 'Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village' by Ronald Blythe. The book has been described as a work of rural realism and is based in East Anglia. The author himself appeared in the film, as did Sir Peter Halls father, and all other parts are played by real-life villagers who improvised their own dialogue. Benjamin Britten was expected to write the music for the film, as a fellow Suffolk resident (see below) but unfortunately he was unwell so it fell to Michael Tippett, also from East Anglia, who produced his Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli which contributed significantly to the popularity of the film. Big fan of performing arts? See our guide to Theatre's in Suffolk or find out more about the lovely town of Bury St Edmunds .

For further information on Aldeburgh, the hometown on Benjamin Britten, see our Aldeburgh article, and in particular Snape Maltings . Home grown Wimbledon champions are few and far between but we have our very own in Suffolk - Christine Truman made her Wimbledon debut at 16 and won the French Open 2 years later in 1959. She won £40! Today she lives and plays tennis in Aldeburgh, where she's President of the Tennis Club & regularly beats us lesser mortals on the court. A dream to watch and an inspiration to many younger players, including her daughter Amanda Janes who followed in her footsteps and became British No 1. Amanda coaches regularly in Aldeburgh and Ipswich. You can recognise her easily as she's the spitting image of Gwyneth Paltrow - but a much better tennis player! If you love the great outdoors, see our guide to Camping in Suffolk or for some great active days out.... Did you watch Poldark on BBC on Sunday evenings? The original Poldark in the 1970's was Robin Ellis, who plays the Reverend Mr Halse in the recent series.

Robin Ellis is an actor and cookery book writer who was born in Ipswich and he remains a loyal Ipswich Town Football Club supporter to this day even though he now lives in France. Find out more about Ipswich P.D. James - the renowned crime fiction writer, P. D. James, had a second home in Southwold and was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991. Several of her novels were set in Suffolk – for example, in Unnatural Causes, when Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh spends a quiet holiday at his aunt's cottage on Monksmere Head, just south of Dunwich . However, all hope of peace is soon shattered by murder. On his initial journey, the detective stops at Blythburgh church and enters ‘the cold silvery whiteness of one of the loveliest church interiors in Suffolk’. Covehithe is the setting for Death in Holy Orders, and in The Children of Men, a novel set in the future, Southwold is the centre for the compulsory suicide of the old! P. D. James’ autobiography is full of local allusions, including pictures of the Cathedral of the Marshes at Blythburgh.

Visit a Suffolk Museum to find out more about the rich and varied heritage of our historic county. Bob Hoskins 1942 - 2014 - well known and award-winning actor, Bob Hoskins, was famous for playing a great variety of roles in many films over a long period (his acting career began in the 1960's and lasted until close to his death). He was particularly known for playing tough, Cockney gangsters - but was actually born in Bury St Edmunds in 1942! His mother was evacuated to Suffolk from London as a result of the heavy bombings, and the Hoskins family left Bury while Bob was just a baby. Star of The Long Good Friday, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and many more, he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease and retired in 2012. Ralph Fiennes was born in Ipswich on 22 December 1962. As well as being a world famous actor (credits include Schindlers List, The Constant Gardener, The English Patient, Harry Potter etc etc) he is an 8th cousin of the Prince of Wales and a 3rd cousin of adventurer Ranulph Fiennes.

He is the eldest of six children and his siblings include actor Joseph Fiennes as well as Martha Fiennes, a director (in her film Onegin, he played the title role); Magnus Fiennes, a composer; Sophie Fiennes, a filmmaker; and Jacob Fiennes, a conservationist. Ralph Fiennes is a UK UNICEF Ambassador and his full name is ....Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes! Benjamin Britten - (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) - 2013 was the centenary of his birth in Lowestoft to a dentist father and an amateur musician mother. Britten was educated at Old Buckenham Hall School in Suffolk and in 1927 he began private lessons in music that would be the beginning of his world-famous musical career. In 1947 he and his partner Peter Pears founded the Aldeburgh Festival , an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music.

In 1976 Britten accepted a life peerage as Baron Britten of Aldeburgh but he died of heart failure soon after at his house in Aldeburgh, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church. The Red House in Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears lived and worked together for almost thirty years, is now the home of the Britten-Pears Foundation which promotes their musical legacy. Ed Sheeran is a singer-songwriter who is currently signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records. Sheeran broke through commercially in June 2011, when his debut single "The A Team" debuted at number 3 on the UK chart. He was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire to Irish and English parents, before moving to Framlingham, Suffolk. He learned guitar at a very young age, and began writing songs during his time at Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham . John Peel – the influential DJ and radio presenter, John Peel lived in Suffolk for 33 years, and his gravestone was erected three years after his death.

Peel was Radio 1's longest serving DJ when he died aged 65 in October 2004, famously championing The Undertones' Teenage Kicks on his show. He was quoted as saying he would like the song's line "our teenage dreams so hard to beat" on his tombstone. The DJ is buried in St Andrew's Church, in the village of Great Finborough, Suffolk. Peel's widow, Sheila Ravenscroft, said: "We have put the words on the stone that he would've wanted. I wouldn't dare do anything else!" John Peel Centre for Creative Arts. The former Corn Exchange building in the Town Centre of Stowmarket is being converted into a top quality centre for creative arts in honour of the legendary John Peel who lived just outside the Town. A group of dedicated volunteers - including John's wife, Sheila - have done some excellent work to raise funds to carry out initial improvement work to which will enable the building to be used to host events. To find out more information, visit Twiggy - one of the world’s most famous models, Twiggy, shares a home in Southwold with her actor husband, Leigh Lawson.

The couple (pictured above) can often be seen taking a walk along the beach in Southwold, and Twiggy says she loves shopping – especially for food – in a number of Suffolk markets. It was one winter in 2004, when the couple were having lunch in a pub after one of their walks on the gusty beach, that she was spotted by Steve Sharp, the marketing executive for Marks & Spencer....the rest, they say is history He had the immediate idea of using her in the well-regarded M&S campaign. Twiggy says, "I'm very happy I went to that pub. It's funny, when I think of all the times I've been to meet someone about a job, and worried about what to wear, and got changed a million times. And then there I am that day in Southwold in my woolly hat and anorak, and Steve spots me. It just shows, doesn't it?” BBC Radio 4 and Newsnight Broadcaster Martha Kearney lives in Suffolk where she enjoys producing honey from her six beehives. Watch her on a BBC4 TV series called The Joy of Honey in 2014.

Griff Rhys Jones Presenter, comedian and documentary maker, Griff Rhys Jones may love the open road and exploring rivers but home is where the heart is. For the 59-year-old that means Holbrook with a garden sloping down the banks of the River Stour, on the Shotley Peninsular in Suffolk, where he lives with wife Jo and Labrador Cadbury. After making his name alongside Mel Smith in Not The Nine O’clock News and Alas Smith and Jones, the multi-talented Jones went on to star on stage and screen. A keen sailor who first tacked his way around the East Anglian waterways with his father Elwyn, Jones has brought the magic of sailing yachts to life through programmes such as Three Men in a Boat and the BBC series River Journeys, which have featured the River Orwell and Pin Mill . The 60-year-old owns a classic yacht, the Undina, which has been berthed at Shotley Marina and is a keen conservationist who supports the work done by the RSPB.

See some of the reasons why Griff Rhys Jones loves Suffolk: Attractions Jimmy Doherty (born 1975) - this Suffolk-based farmer and television presenter was born in Ilford, Essex and trained as a farmer in Cumbria. It was here that he met Michaela Furney, his future wife, and the two of them set up The Essex Pig Company utilising free–range meat production practices. Jimmy went on buy his own farm in Wherstead near Ipswich , which became the base for his BBC TV series, Jimmy's Farm. The series followed Jimmy's trials and tribulations as he set up his rare breed pig farm. Jimmy has since established the farm as a visitor attraction with shops, butterfly house, gardens, animal pens, market and events throughout the year - you can visit the farm by clicking here Jimmy's Farm, Ipswich . Since Jimmy's Farm, Doherty has made a number of series for the BBC including Jimmy's Food Factory, In Darwin's Garden, The Wild Honey Hunters and Farming Heroes.

Jonathan Aitken was the first MP for many years to be sentenced to jail in 1999, but he started a trend with 9 MPs and peers have since following him (due to the expenses scandal). Aitkens was jailed following a libel action against the Guardian which he lost and was shown to have perjured himself. The former Orwell Park schoolboy and journalist at the East Anglian Daily Times served time at Her Majesty's Pleasure in Belmarsh Prison. His family had moved to Halesworth just after the end of WW11, and his father, Sir William Aitken was a Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds. Brian Capron - the actor, Brian Capron, was born in Eye and is probably best known for his role as serial killer Richard Hillman in the television soap opera Coronation Street. He appeared in the series from 2001 to 2003. Other notable TV credits include: Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, The Sweeney, Blake's 7, Tales of the Unexpected, Bergerac, Minder, Casualty, Birds of a Feather, Murder Most Horrid, The Bill, Taggart, Peak Practice, and Grange Hill.

Delia Smith - once one of Britain's best-loved celebrity cooks, authors and TV presenters, Delia Smith is also a Suffolk celebrity for her role as shareholder at Norwich City F.C. Delia currently resides near Stowmarket with her husband and co-shareholder of Norwich City, Michael Wynn-Jones. Delia has had a varied and successful career, beginning as a behind-the-scenes consultant for Sainsbury's. She has presented a number of highly popular TV shows and written many well-loved cookery books, each with an aim and focus on teaching basic cookery skills. June Brown MBE - a true British Treasure, June Brown, is best known for her role as the chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the popular soap opera EastEnders. She was born in Needham Market in 1927. During the Second World War, she was evacuated to Wales. At 17, she met and married the actor John Garley, but he suffered depression and committed suicide at home in 1957. In 1958, she married Robert Arnold, star of the well-known early BBC television programme Dixon of Dock Green.

Since Arnold died in 2003, June has lived alone in their house in Surrey. Humphrey Lyttelton May 1921-April 2008 The famed jazz trumpeter, broadcaster and quizmaster was a regular visitor to his father’s home in Grundisburgh , enjoying the solitude of Suffolk’s scenic countryside. Humphrey’s father George, the second son of the 8th Viscount of Cobham, moved to Suffolk after retiring as a housemaster at Eton College, in 1945 and stayed there until his death, aged 79, in 1962. Although an accomplished jazz musician , Humphrey’s celebrity stemmed from his roles on radio with I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue and The Best of Jazz. Marcus Evans - Ipswich Town The owner and chairman of Ipswich Town Football Club spent his early years in a family cottage in the small village of Walsham le Willows, near Bury St Edmunds. That abiding memory was a factor when he bought the Portman Road club in 2007 at a knock down price.

The 49-year-old Evans is listed 143rd in the Sunday Times Rich List with a £625 million fortune from companies, which employ more than 3,000 people worldwide. A keen golfer, he has two homes in London, but is a regular visitor to Suffolk, often arriving by helicopter and staying and dining close to the Ipswich club. See places to stay Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (approx. 1471-1475 – 29 November 1530) - this historical political figure and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church was born in Ipswich and attended Ipswich School. Wolsey came into great power as King Henry VIII's chief adviser, and held Henry's confidence until the King decided to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey's failure to secure the annulment is widely perceived to have directly caused his downfall and arrest. In 1529, Wolsey was stripped of his government office and property and accused of treason. Wolsey fell ill and died just before his hearing on 29 November 1530.

George Orwell - Born: Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) - the English writer, George Orwell, penned works such as Ninteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, and is considered one of the 20th Century's best narrators of English culture. His work displays high intelligence and keen wit, focusing on social injustice. Orwell's family set up home in Southwold upon his father's retirement. Orwell attended a Cram School there and visited frequently in his later life. In 1929 he returned to his parents' house in Southwold, where he stayed for 5 years. The family was well established in the local community and his sister Avril was running a tea house in the town. During his last year in Southwold he wrote A Clergyman’s Daughter, based on his life as a teacher and on his experiences in Southwold. On 21 January 1950, Orwell died of a burst artery aged just 46.

Sir Alfred Munnings - (8 October 1878–17 July 1959) - one of England's finest painters of horses, Alfred Munnings was born in Mendham, Suffolk. Munnings' artistic talent was employed as war artist and he painted many scenes, working on canvas just a few thousand yards from the German front lines. Munnings was elected president of the Royal Academy of Art in 1944 until 1949. His presidency is most famous for the departing speech he gave in 1949, attacking modernism. He was awarded a knighthood in 1944. In 1959 he died at Castle House, Dedham, and his wife later turned their home in Dedham into a museum of his work. The village pub in Mendham and a street is also named after him. WG Sebald - (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001) - Although not a Suffolk resident, the great author WG Sebald focused his second novel, The Rings of Saturn, on an account of his own on a walking tour of East Anglia, including Suffolk.

The frist sentence of the novel thus begins: "In August 1992, when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work." In addition to describing the places he sees and people he encounters, Sebald also discusses various episodes of history and literature. Sebald died in a car crash near Norwich in 2001, losing control after suffering a heart attack. He is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard in Framingham Earl, Norwich, close to where he lived. Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, LSA, MD (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) - Garrett was a physician and feminist. She second of the nine children of Newson Garrett, a grain merchant and maltster from Aldeburgh . After studying medicine in London, her name was entered on the medical register and she was the first woman qualified in Britain to do so. In 1897 Dr Garrett Anderson was elected president of the East Anglian branch of the British Medical Association.

On 9 November 1908 she was elected mayor of Aldeburgh, the first female mayor in England. She died in 1927 and is buried in Aldeburgh. Famous Suffolk People Beryl Cook, OBE - (10 September 1926 – 28 May 2008) - born in Surrey and best known for her comical paintings of people, Beryl Cook had no formal training and did not take up painting until middle age. Beryl met John Cook when they were just ten years old and living as neighbours, and the pair met again after the Second World War and went on to marry in 1948. They took a tenancy of a pub in Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk, but the countryside was not for them. As Beryl said, "It may have been healthy, but we hated the life."! William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) - the journalist, political philosopher and novelist, William Godwin, moved to Debenham with his parents when he was just 2 years old.

William Godwin moved to Stowmarket in 1780, where he became a deist. He married early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797, and that same year Mary gave birth to their daughter, also called Mary - who later became Mary Shelley and wrote the world-famous novel, Frankenstein. On August 30 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft died from complications ten days after the birth of her daughter. George Crabbe (24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) - the English poet and artist, George Crabbe, was born in Aldeburgh where he first developed his love of poetry. In 1768 he was apprenticed to a local doctor. The field of medicine taught and interested him little, and in 1771 he changed masters and moved to Woodbridge . There he met his future wife, Sarah Elmy. His first major work, a poem entitled Inebriety, was self-published in 1775. He became most well known for The Village (1783) and The Borough (1810).

He was ordained as a priest in 1872. At one time, Crabbe was also an active and notable coleopterist and recorder of beetles, and is credited for taking the first specimen of Calosoma sycophanta L. to be recorded from Suffolk. Jimmy Hoseason (1927-2009) - one of the region's most successful and well-known holiday entrepreneurs, Jimmy Hoseason, grew up in Lowestoft where his father Wally was the harbourmaster. A civil engineer by trade, he took over his father's small boatyard after Wally's death. Hoseasons was founded in 1944 by Wally, who started hiring out boats in Oulton Broad as holiday homes on behalf of their owners during a fuel ban because of the Second World War. Mr Hoseason, who lived in Beccles, died on Saturday 7th November 2009 at age 82.

Angus McBean (1904-1990) – a highly influential photographer thought to have revolutionized portraiture in the 20th century by photographing the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Agatha Christie, Laurence Olivier, Noel Coward, Vivien Leigh, and The Beatles (to name but a few). During the 1970s, McBean began his first short-lived retirement and moved to Suffolk. Here he concentrated on restoring his spectacular moated house, Flemmings Hall, in Bedingfield near Eye . McBean turned the house into a decorative fantasia on Greensleeves, in keeping with his own sartorial style. For ten years McBean did not work as a professional photographer, preferring to photograph a few of his Suffolk friends as a hobby, and instead focused his energies on giving guided tours of Flemmings Hall, and restoring antiques for the antiques shop he owned in Debenham. McBean was a highly regarded member of the Suffolk community, and there are even reports of him having judged a photography competition in Eye. By his eightieth birthday McBean was restoring his second medieval house in Suffolk.

He died in 1990, on the night of his eighty-sixth birthday. Sir Clement Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009) – the broadcaster, writer, politician and chef, Sir Clement Freud, was born in Berlin and was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud. In his early years, Clement was one of Britain's first celebrity chefs and wrote various newspaper and magazine columns. He later became a familiar face on television for his appearance in a series of dog food commercials. Whilst running a nightclub he met a newspaper editor who gave him a job as a sports journalist. From there he became an award-winning food and drink writer. In 1973, Clement turned his talents to politics when he won the Isle of Ely Parliamentary by-election. He and became a Liberal Member of Parliament between 1973 and 1987, and his departure was marked by the award of a knighthood. Clement died at his home in Walberswick on 15 April 2009, aged 84.

His wife, actress Jill Raymond, runs a successful theatre company near to the family home, and his daughter, broadcaster Emma Freud, and her partner, Four Weddings and a Funeral scriptwriter Richard Curtis, own and reside in a country house also Walberswick. Norman Tebbit - the outspoken former Conservative MP who was a key figure in Margaret Thatcher's government, Lord Tebbit and his wife, Margaret, currently live in Bury St Edmunds , where he aimed to enjoy his retirement and “a peaceful life”. The couple also favored Bury St Edmunds because of the facilities close at hand for Margaret, who was confined to a wheelchair after the IRA's bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the 1984 Conservative Party conference, where Tebbit was also injured. Brian Eno -the musician, composer, record producer and singer, Brian Eno, is best known as the keyboard and synthesiser player for Roxy Music. He grew up in Woodbridge , where he still owns a large Victorian house. Maggi Hambling - Maggi Hambling is a household name in British art for her work as a figurative painter, sculptor and printmaker.

Maggi has many connections with Suffolk, having been born there and created the Scallop sculpture on Aldeburgh beach. Please see Maggi Hambling for more information. Ronald "Carl" Giles (1916 –1995) – often referred to simply as Giles, this Suffolk-born cartoonist was most famous for his work for the British newspaper the Daily Express. A bronze statue of his character "Grandma" to commemorate him is located in Ipswich town centre. Two of Britain’s greatest painters, John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough were both born and lived in Suffolk - please see Gainsborough and Constable for more information. Claudia Schiffer – the eternally youthful, German super-model and actress Claudia Schiffer owns a £5 million Elizabethan mansion, Coldham Hall (pictured below), in Lawshall near Bury St Edmunds . Schiffer was married to Matthew Vaughn, producer of hit British film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, in St. George's church in the village of Shimpling on 25 May 2002. Shimpling is in south Suffolk, located around 7 miles from Bury St Edmunds, and is part of Babergh district.

Despite being very a private person, Schiffer has been seen at the fashionable Suffolk Show in Trinity Park, Ipswich. Ronald Blythe - the English writer and editor for Penguin Classics, Ronald Blythe, is best known for his book, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, which details life in Suffolk from the turn of the century to the 1960s. Blythe was born in Suffolk and educated in Sudbury . While a young man, he worked for Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival . Sportsmen - Suffolk's contributions to sport include Formula One magnate Bernie Ecclestone and England footballers Terry Butcher, Kieron Dyer and Matthew Upson. Due to Newmarket being the centre of British horseracing many jockeys have settled in the county, including Lester Piggott and Frankie Dettori. For more information please see Newmarket Racing . Sue Ryder (1923–2000) – this remarkable British peeress who worked with Special Operations Executive in the Second World War later opened and based the Sue Ryder Foundation (AKA Sue Ryder Care) in Cavendish , Suffolk in 1979.

Cradle of Filth - this extreme metal band featuring songs that focus on a horror theme were formed in Suffolk 1991, and lead singer Dani Filth married his girlfriend Toni on October 31 2005 in Ipswich – the couple and their daughter Luna still reside in Suffolk. Corgis from the film, The Queen - Helen Mirren impressed cinema-goers the world over with her performance as the Queen - but few people know her co-star Corgis come from a small Suffolk village! The dogs - Anna, Poppy, and Poppy's puppies Megan, Alice and Oliver - belong to Liz Smith, a retired outside caterer from Little Blakenham, near Ipswich , who became known as “Corgi Liz” on set. Smith was approached to help with the film after her dogs were spotted at an obedience competition by an animal consultant for film and television.

If you love bringing your furry friends on holiday with you then you're in luck - Suffolk is a super dog friendly county and we have a whole heap of articles especially for dog owners, including Doggy Days out and Dog Friendly beaches, click here to read more Dog friendly Suffolk Famous Suffolk People A number of famous people were born in Suffolk and spent their childhood here – these include the actor the film & theatre director Trevor Nunn ( Ipswich ), Hip-Hop DJ and television presenter Tim Westwood ( Lowestoft ), and poet, writer, and traveller Charles Montagu Doughty (1843 – 1926, Saxmundham ). William Songer - Captain Arthur Wakefield's brother-in-law who travelled to Nelson, New Zealand on the Whitby as Wakefield's servant, was born in the village of Stoke by Nayland , and suggested naming the township after his birthplace. Francis Bacon - not exactly a resident but the artist Francis Bacon was frequent visitor to Long Melford , where his lover's brother, David Edwards, owned Westgate House. This Georgian house was an ideal escape for Bacon from London pressures.

The House has a large walled garden which played host to riotous parties, as Bacon enjoyed entertaining his friends from the East End. Long Melford is today offers a thriving Arts Scene with many top class art galleries. For more information please see Art Galleries in Suffolk and Art Exhibitions in Suffolk . Ruth Rendell – another much loved author, Ruth Rendell once lived in Polstead, and in 1997 was created Baroness Rendell of Babergh (of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk). Rendell features Suffolk in many of her novels, produced her own illustrated Ruth Rendell’s Suffolk. Make Death Love Me begins with a robbery at the Anglia Victoria bank in Suffolk, and – written under Rendell’s penname, Barbara Vine - Gallowglass is set in Sudbury, while she wrote about Orford and Aldeburgh for part of No Night is Too Long, Polstead and Nayland for A Fatal Inversion and Bury St Edmunds and its surroundings for The Brimstone Wedding. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) – a frequent visitor to Suffolk, the author Charles Dickens made several references to Suffolk in his work.

For example, Satis House is featured in Great Expectations. When he became famous he toured the county giving recitals of his work - he opened the lecture hall for the Ipswich Mechanics Institute in 1851. A more contemporary Suffolk writer is Erica James who has written more than 19 books including the Gardens of Delight, The Hidden Cottage and Summer at the Lake. The Dandelion Years was published in early 2015 and is set in Suffolk and Bletchely Park. Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was a high profile anti-slavery campaigner who spent much of his life lobbying for the abolition of the slave trade. Born in Cambridgeshire, he won a scholarship to Cambridge University in 1779 where he won a Latin essay competition on the subject of whether it was lawful to make slaves of others against their will. He continued to campaign for abolition after leaving University, and, in 1787, he and Granville Sharp formed the Committee for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. This Committee helped to persuade MP William Wilberforce to take up the abolitionist cause.

Clarkson collected information and evidence about the slave trade from eyewitnesses, especially sailors who had worked on slave trading ships, and he used examples of equipment used on slave ships, including handcuffs, shackles and branding irons, as visual aids. The slave trade was abolished in the British empire in 1807 and the following year, Clarkson published a book 'History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade' and continued to campaign for the complete abolition of slavery. In 1833, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act which gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. Clarkson retired to Ipswich and died on 26 September 1846. Thanks to Ian Coles for bringing Martin Routh to our attention - Although not famous by modern day standards, Martin Routh was born in South Elmham close to Halesworth in 1755. He was a classical scholar and became President of Magdalen College Oxford in 28 April 1791, and held that position for 63 years until he died in 22 December 1854. This is still the record for a head of any UK College ever.

He died in 1854 at 99, a very rare age then. Do you know of any famous Suffolk residents? Please send the details for inclusion to suffolkguides.admin@suffolktouristguide.com . Most Read Articles

Question: For which British national newspaper did the cartoonist Giles produce his most famous work?
Answer: DAILY EXPRESS